Untrue World
by amnothuman
Summary: Humans aren't real, right? They're merely stories in the pokemon world meant to frighten and amuse children. That's what Charmander thinks.
1. Comet

1.

_Humans are just fictional. Aren't they?_ - Seer Jenen the Natu

* * *

Charmander sighed happily, tail tucked around his belly and keeping him warm as he read another novel in the night. It seemed like the fictional creatures called humans were all the rage these days; he'd even tried writing a novel of his own about them, but never had gotten past the first few pages. It was simply too difficult trying to make such creatures sound realistic; most writers were so very fanciful, writing such nonsense as having no element (how ridiculous) and having very poor physical abilities, kind of like a magikarp. Nonetheless, they were said to be long-lived and of greater intelligence than most pokemon (once again very ridiculous), and to be monstrous creatures that would gobble up children from their homes at night and then release them to force them to fight their siblings.

It was this horror element about them that interested him, and he always loved to read a good horror novel about them. But there were many that weren't horror, including the famous pikachu work that introduced the concept of pokeballs, strange tiny prisons. Out of copyright, now pokeballs were a pretty common concept in novels, but he always felt like the original work was the best.

Reflecting on the political viewpoint of the time, it represented a near-utopian society where good pokemon did what they were told by superior beings than they, humans (who were an obvious stand in for the great Emperors and holy Rulers of the time) who never treated them truly badly, and when they did, were always defeated by other righteous humans. It was controversial in it's acceptance of slavery, which was a debated issue at that time and age, and had tried to excuse it with the fact that none of the slaves wanted to escape, and was today in arguing of the divine right of superior beings to rule.

Yawning and folding up his book to go clamber into bed, he laughed to himself. The book he'd just tried to read was terrible- a pokemon-human romance called Twidark. Humans definitely weren't beautiful beings, they were supposed to be piss-ugly monsters that couldn't breed with pokemon, he scoffed. The book had completely butchered the species, making them stupid and compliant to the stalker Absol's wishes like some kind of pet, and even smell good. They were supposed to smell awful, but cover themselves in other creature's scents to hide it. In addition, the resulting pokemorph baby was just totally repugnant- it didn't even hatch from an egg! Gross.

There were some stories, fairly rare in number, where humans were pets, or where pokemon themselves didn't exist, or where, laughingly, humans got turned into pokemon or vice versa. Loving fantasy of any type, he'd read them all.

One thing was certain, though, he'd never, ever, meet a human... Though sometimes he wished he could, just to see what they were really like...

Looking out to the sky, Charmander was startled to see a shooting star appear near the stars as he made his wish, then, instead of fading, got rapidly bigger and bigger. With alarm, he realized it was going to crash into his friend Milktank's house, and tore off the fireproof cover of his bed and ran out to warn her, shouting.

"Milktank, you've got to wake up! Milktank, you've got to get out of here!"

As he reached the pasture, he glanced around and could not see his friend anywhere, not even at the hay or beneath her favorite tree. Where could she be...? Ah, now he remembered, he was so bloody stupid! She'd said she'd be gone on vaca-

The ground glowed with light, and then there was nothing but the briefest moment of pain and noise.

* * *

Opening his eyes blearily, he groggily wondered how he could happen to still be alive. The world was painfully, shockingly white for a moment, and he gave a cry out to the air- and was startled to hear his own voice.

"Charrr!"

It came out hideously wrong, bestial sounding, and with his name. They had not spoken just their own names for centuries, having figured out to speak the names of others. The number of characters in their own names were very limiting for a language, and having to learn the patterns as a child in order to speak with any other species was a pain. He still knew how to speak that ancient language, of course, but was very rusty, having not studied it since early childhood in school. But what was also disturbing about it was how youthful it seemed. His voice had lost a lot of it's deepness, and he felt like he was once again a small little child.

"Bulbaaaa!" Another sounded, and he strained to figure if there was any intellectual meaning to it, or if it was a startled reaction to the light just like his own. Eyes adjusting, he blinked rapidly to find himself sitting beside a squirtle. That meant the bulbasaur had to be- ah. Beside him, he concluded as he turned his head to see it. They were all sitting on a table.

A bizarre pokemon he didn't recognize was standing in the room, along with several younger ones. With a bright reddish light, another pokemon appeared beside him, and he stared in astonishment at the pikachu there. Then another popped there, an eevee, then a cyndaquil, a totodile, a chikorita, a murkrow- the list went on, but of all them, their most notable feature was that they were babies. The table quite crowded now, he felt nervous as the room mummered about, and eyes passed over him more than once or twice.

"Now, now, to attention everyone, silence please, silence!" the adult male of the group called, who had released the youths from- where those pokeballs? It couldn't be, he rubbed his eyes. And how was that pokemon talking when they couldn't? Ah, wait, perhaps it was because he'd somehow been turned back to a juvenile form, that made sense... just baby babble, that was all, he thought in relief. "Today is a very big day as you will be choosing your starters. They will be your constant companions for the next year provided you don't drop out, or if you are lucky, years. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages, but I must stress that none of them are better than the others."

At once, there was a ton of shouting and noise again, some of which he could make out as 'I want Pikachu!' 'I gotta choose you, Treecko!' 'I demand Charmander!' the last comment of which disturbed him the most. What was this, an orphanage?

"QUIET!" the male yelled over the ruckus. "Now please, one at a time! No grabbing, no stepping on each other's feet, you must behave. You will be training these pokemon, they will not be pets, and this is not a decision to be taken too lightly- I repeat, they will be your partners over the next year if all goes well, maybe longer! Now, you, go first, let's form a line here."

Glancing around, trembling in horror, he glanced at the other pokemon to see if any of them were having this reaction of fear. Disinterest, boredom, excitement, even envy when the first (an odd-hue pikachu, who from the shouting seemed very popular) was chosen. None of them had a clue. None of them cared that it seemed, against all logic, to be humans, those infamous monsters, standing there.

A grinning face appeared in front of him. "I want this one!"

Charmander felt very, very screwed.

- To Continue?

* * *

A/N: Okay, this was just a little idea in my head. It was amusing enough I had to doodle it down. I haven't seen this before, but the plot elements themselves aren't very original- I just took the 'reincarnate a pokemon into a human' common plot into 'reincarnate a pokemon into a pokemon' as the next logical step would be- or did I? Did Charmander reincarnate into another charmander, or is he still himself, just younger? Haha... Chapters will probably be very short. If you want to suggest characters/trainers to use (just for fun, it's not like this is seriuz buziness) go ahead, though keep in mind I might interpret or change the character(s) into a way you don't like. Or just throwing some random things out to stir my muse, maybe, that would be appreciated too. Like 'Cloud obsessed ninja hippie' or something... although the resulting character might be a bit too weird.


	2. Kebin

Untrue World

A/N: Wow, a review. Honestly didn't think I'd get one of those; not that I'm complaining, I like silence a fair bit. To answer your question, I think the instructor needed an extra pokemon and figured murkrow would work just as good as a pikachu would. :) Both have similar difficulties in taming (pikachu might be worse because it can electrocute you), though I'm sure a lot of kids would have the same reaction as you towards it. 'Murkrow? Really?' I got some more muse right after publishing as fate would have it... O: Edit: the format came out weird. Odd. Managed to fix it, though I don't know if anyone saw that.

Warning: Mentions of blood and violence. Minor cursing, like hell, bloody, drasted, arrrrggghh.

Disclaimer: Do not own Pokemon.

2.

_Humans are just as real as fairies, I see them in my wall living as midgets. What do you mean you don't believe _

_in faeries? You can't say that, every time you do it kills a faerie!_ ~ Mental Patient Dorice the tangela

* * *

As the face came upon him, he tried in terror to think of something, anything, to force his limbs to move. He'd always been a shy individual, and was one of the many who had families that never seemed to evolve anymore, not needing to fight. So many humans, he didn't think running would give a chance of escape, and was vastly outnumbered. These strange pokemon beside him, he rather expected they'd fight against him rather than join him, as well.

But just as suddenly as this had all happened, he seemed possibly rescued. "You don't have to take that particular one, by the way. Since they're popular I have a few extra charmander this year, including a rare female."

"Really?" the freckle-faced kid turned away for a moment, and the charmander took the opportunity and launched forward, sinking his teeth into his arm then unlatching to drop away on to the floor. "AAWRG!" the kid screamed, tears whelming up as they backed away. Other children scrambled to give Charmander space as he tried to duck behind the desk, looking around for his next opportunity to escape in the masses and warily watching for retaliation as he considered what to do next.

"He's rabid!" someone whimpered, sucking their thumb. It struck him that all this humans seemed to be acting awfully strange... and awfully young. Were they giving away babies to babies? That didn't seem right.

"No, he's just vicious." sneered a girl, a female-human he identified from smell.

"It just needs t-to be tamed." stuttered another holding the off-hue pikachu, and they all began to argue with one another. Perfect, that meant they were distracted. Then, he felt something soft and weird in texture grip him firmly around his sides and kicked out, struggling as he was roughly put back on to the table. He heard a loud booming voice speak out above him. "Calm down everyone. Charmander are commonly fiesty, and this one just seems a bit wilder than usual. As I said before, I have some others." He should have known. It was that large, adult male that had snuck up behind him- he cursed his lack of awareness, but Charmander had never been very good at paying attention to his environment before, always daydreaming.

The boy who'd originally wanted him opted to take another, the female in the belief that they were nicer (hah, yeah right. Females could be even worse- there was a reason they were rarer.) and he felt joy at his success. But by evading being taken, the thought struck him, what would happen to him next? In horror, as many started to drift away excitedly from the scene with new starters, he saw the adult human move to take a pokeball. No, hell not, he wasn't going in there! With a savage snarl, he made a break for it, leaping off the table a second after the other let go and dashing to the door. He was going to make it! He was going to-

Oww! He curled over as pain descended on him, laying on the floor and not quite sure what had just happened. Determined, he opened his eyes and pulled himself up, lips curled to see his attacker. A young man stared down emotionlessly as his face, with a rather disheveled appearance to his fur as he stood just at the door, one foot paused in midstep.

"Oy, instructor Berry, sorry I'm late." the boy moved his foot away from Charmander, so it was no longer in danger of stepping on his body. "...I guess I'll take this one." Lackadaisically, the young male stretched down as Charmander made to scramble away and excruciatingly grabbed him by the tail. Hissing madly, he scratched at the air, and sparks sizzled from his tail, but to no effort. Drawing a deep breath, he tried to summon fire breath, but nothing expelled but a tiny puff of smoke and sparks to his internal fury. "Kinda feisty."

"You shouldn't grab them at the tail like that, you could get burnt and it angers the pokemon." the instructor chided. "Kebin, I should refuse you for being late- again, but go ahead and come on in. You need this for your safety just like everyone else."

"No thanks. I just need the dex and I'll be on my way, I don't need a tutorial on using a pokeball, battling or nothin'." his 'trainer' scoffed, before outholding his other arm to receive whatever that 'dex' was. It certainly wasn't in any of the stories he'd heard.

"Don't be lazy. You can come in and get yours from the box just like everyone else." He jutted a thumb in the direction of it, and Charmander wondered how he hadn't noticed it before. Then again, there were a lot of things he hadn't noticed until now, like the fact the humans had different colored manes on their head. This Kebin's was black, being upside down he got a fair view of it. He felt himself bump up and down as his captor walked across the room, and wheezed for breath now, the pain in his tail making him unable to think. He was really sensitive there, all very young charmander were, because if anything happened to his flame he'd die. They weren't the kind of lizards that could afford to lose and regenerate their tails.

The hand relinquished him, and the charmander hit the ground with relief, wobbling around pathetically. He licked at his tail, and felt pretty certain he was crying. It didn't make him feel very good about himself. The others were talking, but his ears were ringing and he tuned them out, trying not to feel so awful.

"Follow me, Leos." Kebin commanded, and the pokemon realized that was his new name. In defeat, for the moment, he shuffled after, trying not to focus on the ache. Something strangely compelled him now, perhaps one of the rules of this new world, or perhaps because had the circumstances been different he'd have vocalized well before now.

"Charrr..." he growled, green eyes staring fiercely up at the sky. Soon, he promised himself, he'd be free. He was not completely demoralized; this was just a set back.

* * *

"Scratch, Leos!"

It was all too strangely easy to obey the order to fight when your opponent was trying to kill you, he mused, as he stared at his newest, and first, opponent. They had not traveled far into the field before encountering something. Pidgey had timidly pecked about on the path, but one bold rattata had stepped forward, seeking to test the human traveler to see if he was as stupid as he looked. At first, Charmander had been very amused- a battle like in one of the novels, really? But all these amusement had ceased as it had shot out with fangs to rabidly bite at him. It was like it was actually trying to kill him, he thought worriedly as he backed away as slashed outwards to deter it.

Going backwards, it paused and eyed him. "Ratta tat atata! _Human-toy!_" it growled to try to intimidate him,although he thought it was kind of cute until he managed to translate. Two could play the intimidation game. Ignoring the humans orders, he aggressively puffed himself out and bore his fangs and teeth in an intimidating manner as he howled a snarl and stomped forward.

"ChaaaarMANDer! _Oh yeah?_" Or at least, that's what he hoped it translated to. He was extremely bad at this, and his inflections were slightly off. The rattata actually seemed to pause for a moment, and he took advantage of it being off-guard to slash at it some more. Injured, he expected it to flee, but the apparently stupid creature leaped in again at him, nipping down and drawing blood on his leg. As it did he retaliated, and this time, ripped it open wide until large gashes lay gleaming wet in the fur. Horrified at what he'd done, he stepped backward as the small mouse collapsed before him, and he heard his sadistic trainer cheer.

Oh, hell, oh bloody hell... he gazed at his bloody claws unhappily. Had he just killed someone? It had to still be alive, but if they left it there it was surely going to die.

"Good job Leos. I heard pokemon can be a bit slow to learn what orders mean, so I'll forgive you for not obeying me this time. You still won, and that's all that matters." the other boldly said, and strode forward to examine the unconscious thing. "Don't want to eat it? Guess that means you aren't a wild caught one after all- the breeders who got you simply did a piss-poor job."

Kebin, Charmand- Leos- whatever, decided that the guy was rather unpleasant in character. Although, Leos wasn't a bad name, he thought, and he'd always had difficulty picking a unique one for his own and had never gotten around to it. He didn't think it matched him very well though; Leo rather implied he was a brave warrior, and with this... No, Charmander felt absolutely sick to see the blood. He'd always eaten pre-made food before to supplement his berry diet with protein, he'd never had to kill anyone...

His trainer walked off with out him, and it was actually some time before he came back. Leos thought about running, but couldn't help but continue to stare at the rattata, then look up hopefully for some sort of mercy.

Couldn't they help him? Heal him or something?

The act of mercy, it never came. "What the heck is wrong with you? I almost got attacked without you! You're supposed to follow me to protect me." A lecturing tone lashed at him, the human's voice and body language strongly reprimanding, fists tightened and eyes narrowed. "Do not make me ask again."

Ha. That wasn't asking, the charmander thought with curled lips, it was just demanding something the other didn't deserve. Turning around, he planted his behind on the ground and refused to look at the trainer. They could get attacked again, he honestly wouldn't care. A clicking noise caught his attention, and he turned his head just to get sucked into a red beam. Oh! That. He'd forgotten about those drasted pokeballs. Any noise he might have made was sucked into silence, as he disappeared into the light, and then fell into a strange, pitch black darkness...


	3. Cucumber

Untrue World

3.

_Battling was a part of nature. It could not be rejected, especially at one's superior's command! - _The Book of The Furious Jigglypuff

* * *

What happened next was a strange and unusual, but rather welcome break for him from the cramp nothingness of his ball. Inside he had been vaguely aware of time going on, yet had felt strangely unlike himself, a vastly uncomfortable experience. Being 'released', when it came, was very much a release of nerves as much as the physical act of being let out when he poured upon the floor. Gazing about the room, he found himself tended to by Chansey in the back room of something called a 'Pokemon Center'. Even in his world, they were well known to make good nurses, but were fairly rare. It amazed him that here there were so many of them and no other pokemon nurses except a few female humans.

There he was fed for the first time in this world, a happily inoffensive unidentifiable brown substance, and could listen to a strange voice in another room talking. Poking his head around a corner, he could see a human talking inside a box. Fascinating. Their technology truly was more advanced than his own kind's...

"Were you to see an asteroid, in fact, and suffer the same fact as the ancient Kabutops, you would only have a single flashing second, with no other warning. This is because they travel faster than a bullet as they come crashing out of the sky. If one was heading towards us today, we'd be very lucky to spot it with our telescopes within sufficient time to make any sort of plan to stop it or recognize it as on a collision course- even a year's ahead notice might not be enough time." the graying man stated on the screen. "But your chance of dying from an asteroid is very unlikely."

_But... I could have sworn I saw it coming at me! Right at Milktank's house! _he blinked, poking his head back out when a human passed by. _I don't... _gazing at his young, babish claws, he began to doubt his sanity. _Could it be none of my life ever happened? That can't be. _He closed his eyes and slunk against the wall. _I know too much to be a baby..._

_"_I want Leos back now." a cold familiar voice came from the other room. Frantically, Charmander glanced around, looking for somewhere to escape to. But the only way out was back towards Kebin!

"_Please hide me!" _he begged the Chansey, who stared at him oddly with their round, big eyes.

"Chaaansey?" it questioned, and he cursed. Who heard of a pokemon who couldn't understand other pokemon? He was such a disgrace... although the thought occurred to him that perhaps neither of them could understand the other. He was just too bad with this old dialect.

_"_There you are," snorted Kebin as he walked into the room._ "Return!" _he shouted, outstretching the pokeball, and despite his struggle, was utterly helpless against getting sucked away in.

* * *

"GO!"

Suddenly, next thing he coherently knew, he was standing in front of a pidgey, fighting again in a grass field. It launched at him, and tried to peck his eyes out, and in fear he kicked out at it, sending it against a tree, and slashed at it to keep it down before it could go at him again.

"Good. Return!"

* * *

"Growl, Leos!"

Whirling outward, he gave a reluctant cry, not because he was told to, but because he was alarmed to suddenly be on the ground again as a yellow rodent smashed into him, thundershocking him at the command of some chubby trainer. In a harrowing next few minutes, he scratched and bit and tackled against the nasty little mammal that had chosen him, for whatever reason, as a victim of choice to slowly paralyze.

He barely avoided having to faint, as it toppled to the ground before his teeth. Next, he thought he had fainted, for everything went black again.

* * *

Again.

"LEOS! SCRATCH!"

With little warning, he was out again, a dizzyingly in an entirely new location. A tall dark forest was around them, and the early evening sky twinkled above them as a beedrill buzzed angrily, circling him. Dodging as it stung at him, he scratched outward again and again, but wasn't entirely able to maneuver out of the way of it's fury quickly enough and felt it sharply dig into him. Poison filled through his veins, and he winced, before instinctively opening up his jaws up and outward at it to send a fistful of ember at the insect's yellow face. It crumpled to the ground, and dragged itself away...

Leos turned his head, expecting perhaps some sort of congratulation-

And was sucked right back in.

_"Now you, Pidgey!"_ he heard faintly before it all grew too dull and distant away.

* * *

He had been healed again, somehow. At the center? He didn't remember waking up, or eating there, from the rumble of his stomach. It was still early night, the sun having just dipped over the horizon and a small ray of reddish purple was faintly visible. There was no immediate opponent facing him this time, but a young girl was nervously fiddling with her pokeballs in front of him. "Um, okay, I'll choose you... Wurmple!"

Feeling no threat at the new creature in front of him, he stretched, blinked, and looked around at his surroundings properly for the first time in awhile. Forest. Maybe it was the same one they were in before?

"Tackle, Wurmple!" the young girl commanded, and Leos yawned, walking out of the way of the furiously scurrying forward bug that tried to leap on him repeatedly like some sort of overgrown flea. Yeahhh, so intimidating.

"Ember, Leos." Kebin commanded, without the slightest hint of a please like always. He turned his head around to face his hated trainer and narrowed his eyes, feeling the wurmple finally landing a hit on him as he stopped trying to avoid it. Ignoring it as it gave a cry of happiness, he grew steadily closer to his dark haired 'master', mouth opened aggressively wide. "What are you doing, you stupid pokemon? I'm not the one you are fighting! Get into battle!"

_"No."_ the charmander growled, flaming tail flickering in vigor. "_You are the one I'm fighting."_ With horrific glee, he breathed flame upon the young boy, and watched him scream as he caught flame and tumbled to the ground, rolling frantically to get rid of the heat that ate at him.

Opening his mouth to flame again, he was stopped by something beating him upside the head, and shook his head to glance back at the wurmple, who was shouting at him.

"_Bad! You bad! Fight _Wurrrmplleee _not traiiner! Bad pokemon you!" _it scolded. Meanwhile, his trainer screamed something that sounded like the word 'cucumber' over and over again in hysteria.

"_Are all pokemon in this world as freaking stupid as you?"_ He stared. "_You wouldn't stand a chance against me if I fought you, not at these respective levels. Can't you see your trainer is sending you out to the slaughter?"_

It stared blankly at him, for a moment, struggling to get through his strange 'accent' and crude manipulation of the language, and perhaps, if he or she understood that far, the complex concepts that laid within after that. "_Not nice. Can't you see he in pain?"_

That actually made Charmander pause, glancing guiltily as he noted how horribly fragile the human seemed to be, wheezing in pain on the ground as they, with the help of some water from the girl human, managed to get rid of the flames. Burns marred their face, all ever so easily... too easily. Humans really were typeless. "_He hurt me first." _Charmander replied with what he knew was a very juvenile response, before darting away, making a break for it into the wilderness.

Why, dammit, should he feel guilt about running away now, he thought as he scrambled through the growths and bush? Kebin had done nothing but make him miserable, and escape was the only way. He had forced him to fight against others, but when Charmander had turned the tables, hadn't been able to take his own dish served cold. _I miss home. I miss Mama. _The last thought made him internally freeze. _I am truly turning into a child! I haven't seen my mother or wanted her since I was- well, this age!_

After a short run, he gasped for breath and hid against the hollow crevice of a tree, his babyish fat limbs already giving out on him. His reddish-orange body and burning tail were pitiful for hiding, making him shine like a beacon in the dark forest out to everything, he scowled. Forcing himself to get up again, he knew his only choice was to go on before someone caught up with him, and tried to catch him again. He had to find better shelter, some place where he wouldn't stick out.

A strange music caught his attention...

"Tododile, dile, dile." a happy voice chirped out, as he came over a hill and looked over towards a clearing where a gentle musical tone played from a sort of metal box. Another of those silly humans stood, cooking something at a fire, while a content water pokemon danced around it. He thought he recognized the tododile from the place they'd been given away at, and the human. Two to be wary of, then... but both seemed off-guard. He could sneak around them.

Crawling around, he startled as a loud noise popped up, a crackling voice. "Alert! We interrupt your program to give a report on the Pokemon League News!"

That box was a news device? Like their letter-service but with sound? Fascinating. Was it possible they knew about his deviance already? That was worrying... he pressed himself against the ground to hide while he listened, hoping the glow of his tail would be mistaken for some of the light from their own fire.

"Aww, not again..." the human yawned, then stuffed his smelly meat sausage into his mouth and chewed on it. "W'nder w'at it iff t'is time." Tododile stared at the human in response, shrugging.

"A mysterious flying pokemon has been spotted in the Chartreuse town area, killing locals. We ask all inexperienced trainers to keep away, and for the assistance of expert trainers who happen to be in the area. In addition, three starting trainers have been injured in a grass pokemon incident at Brown Town by attempting a novice solar-beam, and we highly recommend all trainers to train their pokemon thoroughly before relying on them. Nineteen trainers dropped out of the League running this week, one of which managed to gain four badges already, Miss Alice Kite, and seemed to be quite full of shining promise..."

Relaxing a little, but still vigilant and on his guard, he scanned his surroundings and the skies as he listened on. It was very informative, though not what he'd been expecting. So there was some sort of league they were all competing in, these trainers? What was the prize for winning? Why did they fight?

It was a subject often overlooked by his books that he read. Many simply said they fought for the enjoyment of it, or sadism in the more monster-themed ones, whilst some of the more trashy ones left out the battling aspect all together and made them cuddly barf-buckets of romance or cuteness. Admittedly, some of the littler ones had turned out to be kind of cute looking, but he found the vast majority to be rather ugly and apish looking.

"A thunderstorm is expected for this area, so do not linger long. We will return you back to your program." the audio beeped out, then music began to play again. Charmander immediately felt panic, and scurried across the ground to get away. Thunderstorm? As in, water? Crud, he had to find a way out of here, and some shelter, and soon!

"Charmander! Leos! Where are you?" he heard Kebin call out, somewhere, and hastened to turn around the other way, heading off in a direction as far away from the other trainers as he could. At this point, he'd rather face the storm then that round red-and-white jail cell again, he miserably scowled to himself. "I command you to come back to me! ...Please!"

The air felt heavy and moist, but eerily still and windless as he rushed through the air, padding along the ground in muscles he was very unused to. Up ahead were more and more trees, with the occasional clearing splattering around here and there. A splatter of water hit his head, and the reptilian fire pokemon broke into a run.

Another and another drop hit him, and he swung his tail under his belly to guard it from the rain, determined but shivering.

_Jirachi, the wish maker pokemon... _he gazed up at the sky, desperately. _Did you do this? I swear I didn't mean it, that wish... I was just jesting, thinking to myself it might be fun to know what it was like! I don't truly want this! I wish I was home again! _Nothing, only the flash of light of a storm, answered him. _Please... _The sky rumbled, then the navy-blue blackness poured upon his wet, orange figure. He wasn't sure if he was crying or not, the pain in his tail and the cold in his chest intensifying as he forced himself to slug on through the rain. 'Leos' tried snuggling up his tiny self against a tree that massively dwarfed him in size, but to little avail. The water found him just as easily there, though it saved him from the wind that began to wail.

_Just give up, why don't you? _he exhaustedly placed himself down on the muddy ground to rest his eyes, too tired to go on. _The only ones who might rescue you will just enslave you again, and expect you to be a wonderful pet... And nature will just ask death of you... You aren't home, and you can't find it, so just stop pretending... just stop..._

"Charmander!" he heard Kebin yell again, and he listened to him yell on a few more times again, before giving up on him and going silent, heading away for his own shelter. At least he had that newest pokemon to protect him now, that was a pidgey, wasn't it? The boy would do okay, he'd still be able to go on his idiotic adventure and fight another day despite those burns he'd given him... it obviously hadn't muted his voice...

He listened for, on the off-chance something might occur, for footsteps now or the sound of another pokemon, but nothing like that came. Everything had fled to seek shelter from the storm, except, stupidly, himself, who had no clue where to find any in this world. Was this the end, now? Was he dying in the rain?

Closing his eyes, the charmander thought to himself that if there was one thing he was sure of, it was that he was quite tired of everything going black...


	4. Black

Untrue World

Disclaimer: some may find this chapter disturbing. For inspiration after reading, look up Stockholm Syndrome, dog-fighting, torture and brainwashing.

4.

_...Moo. Breath deeply, calm, and eat more grass. Moo... - _Milktank's Philosophy_  
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* * *

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_Who am I. Am I Leos? Or am I Charmander? _his fuzzy, half-conscious thoughts swam in a state like and not-like sleep. Were he more aware, he would have wondered if he was dead. _I've always been Charmander... But tha' was in the other world. In this world, I was named Leos. But is that just the name of this body, or is that me? Is there a difference?  
_

Slowly, sensations returned to him, an incredible uncomfortable coldness like he had never felt before. Such a chill about his tail alarmed his groggy mind to an abrupt waking, his eyes flicking open wide-

only to stare at the face of yet another human.

"_Gah!" _he snarled, stepping back, except he found he couldn't. His limbs were bound up in a blanket, and he kicked and wiggled frantically out of the cloth, and saw alarmingly his tail was down to a mere slight reddish glow with the occasional small spark and a tiny whisp. Focusing his anger, he forced it to burn hotter, and relight into a proper looking fire, albeit a tiny one. A ninetails laughed at him, laying not far beside him, along with a lombre eating at the table, and a quagsire. The charmander was in a medium-sized human-made room.

"I wonder what a little guy like you was doing out all alone in the rain. I'm sure you're mommy wouldn't let you alone. I've contacted the authorities to check to see if you have a trainer; it looks like you should be all well and healed up soon, eh?" the woman grinned, and patted him on the head before turning around and walking to her bag.

"Nine tail tails I!" the fox spoke to him, and he stared without comprehension, embarrassingly. "Nii, nine." it tried to speak to him again, then shook its head and looked at its companions. "Nin nan tail tail, ninetails." He got the feeling it was mocking him to its friends.

"He doesn't talk? That's weird." the human glanced back. "Sounds like they could use some good training. We should begin immediately."

Fearful, Leos launched himself to escape, but was too slow to escape the human's grip as she outstretched her arm and plunked him down into her lap and proceeded to scratch him lightly on the head. _Wha- what is this..? This is training? _He felt utterly baffled. "Snuggle time everybody!" the girl commanded, giggling as her pokemon launched themselves at her in an eager frenzy, knocking each other over to get the best spot. Soon he had a lombre foot leaning on his head, not something he'd ever thought he'd experience, truthfully, and a quagsire trying to squish him. Compared to everything that had happened lately, though, this was, well, it was **nice**.

* * *

He was beginning to understand the logic of her insidious tactic. After watching a 'television show', as she called it, where a boy rescued a pokemon and it came to love him, the idea occurred to him that she probably expected the same thing to happen to him. He 'owed' her, after all she saved his life, and she was treating him fairly nicely, feeding him nice food and things, and frankly, appealing to his instincts. Ever since coming to this world and body, he'd been finding it harder and harder to fight them. Humiliatingly, as a baby, a part of him found he wanted to be hugged and nurtured, and led around. It was a struggle to remind himself he was in fact an adult and a person, not some sort of pet.

"We found your trainer!" she walked in excitedly, and horror filled the charmander as he looked up, expecting to see Kebin as well. "Turns out his name is Kebin, and he's only a little ways away. Said he had trouble training you, so I get to keep you for a little while until he makes his way here! Said I might get to keep you permanently, since he had some sort of squabble with his folks."

..._great. _He closed his eyes, sighing.

"So your name is Leos?"

Very, very reluctantly, he acknowledged this, although it seemed to be a rhetorical question as before he could nod, she continued on. "That's nice. Well Leos, I believe you are ready for the next part of your training. Come here, boy."

He gazed at her, hesitant. _Why?_

She held out a piece of food, and it was then he realized what was going on. The coming was the training, she was treating him like a need-to-be-trained pet. Insulted, he laid down on the floor in an obstinate manner, as if to say he definitely wasn't going anywhere. She waited, then clicked her tongue and outstretched her hand again, trying to sound and smell appealing enough for a lizard to want to investigate. He closed eyes and pretended to go to sleep.

Five minutes later, he realized a flaw in his plan. He was bored. She wasn't going away. And if she kept this up, he would begin to get hungry. To keep himself entertained, he turned his head and looked at what the other pokemon were doing.

"Hmm, oh I see what you are doing." she said quietly to herself, glancing at the pokemon. "I'll have to remove them, then. And all possible distractions." Picking up her pokeball, she returned the others, who looked disappointed to be interrupted during play, and picked up all interesting objects off the floor. Soon, she was the only appealing object in the room.

Annoyed, he walked away and curled up in the opposite corner of the room, waiting. She couldn't keep this up forever...

* * *

Dinnertime. He had not eaten in two days. While he had been bored waiting and pacing around the room, she had cooked meals for herself and entertained herself with a book, occasionally looking up and asking him to come again.

Now she was cooking again, and the smell was delicious. Beans and chili sauce and meat, it was enough to make him drool. She glanced at him. His will was breaking.

"Come here and have some. Come Leos!" she commanded. "Come here!"

His will was broken. He rushed over, clamoring for food.

* * *

"Come, Leos."

She commanded, and unthinkingly now, he obeyed, getting up and walking over to her. Repeated treatments of the food and fun-withholding 'game', sometimes in different variations, had gradually beaten those two words into his head. It was demoralizing, but there was little point as he had found to disobeying. It got one nowhere. That was perhaps the whole point of the training. This time, she rewarded him by wrapping her arms around him in a hug and picking him up.

"Let's step up the training a little."

Opening the door, they entered in to a new room he'd never seen before, and she placed him down in a ring just tall enough to inch over his head and prevent him from easily jumping over. There, she released another pokemon, lotad. It smelled faintly like it was related to her lombre he'd seen before. He bore his teeth aggressively in intimidation, but did no more. Truthfully, the sleepy playful days of relaxation and food had left him in no mood to fight even after he'd made a full recuperation from the storm. The smell of grass stirred his natural instinct to use fire, but as he felt it was no real threat, this went down again.

"Ember, Leos." the woman commanded, and he almost did, just purely out of habit of obeying her. His mouth opened, but he closed it again, nothing coming out, and gazed untrustingly at the young lotad. It jabbered its name meaninglessly at him, and he failed to understand once more. "Astonish, Lolo Jr."

It bounced off his belly, slightly painfully, and he glanced at it in amusement for it had nearly startled him into leaping away. He got the feeling he could take that treatment for a long time, his tolerance to pain increased by the treatment Kebin had put him through, and the fact the move was fairly weak. "Again and again until I say stop, Lolo Jr."

He resisted, snorting and turning his side to it as it tried to inflict pain and startle him by attacking in a swerving, jumpy manner that attempted to 'astonish'. He could see how the move was so named, but it wasn't working so well on him, as he was determined not to care too much about what it would do.

"Nature power, now." Nature what? He turned his head, and gave a cry as he received a swift blow to the face. "Absorb, finish him off Jr.!" It latched on to him, and green energy drained out, something he instinctively hated, feeling himself grow weaker and weaker to the grass move. Unbidden, his tail flame grew larger, angry, and smoke plumed out of his mouth.

"Ember, Leos!" she commanded again, and he slashed his claws out, tucking them in harmlessly at the last minute and using them to merely push the lotad away. Disobediently, he tried to flee the battle, leaping at the sides of the enclosure and scratching at the ring's wire. It rang with a hard metal and refused to break or let him out, each attempt at clambering out resulting in him falling or getting pushed over by the trainer back in. "I said, Ember!"

In a scene reminiscent to before, he opened his mouth wide and tried to ember her, but she came prepared to his tricks and stepped backward, farther than his flame could reach while he was in the enclosure. He tried to climb out while she was away, but was tackled by lotad who toppled him over. Snarling and enraged after the arrogant little grass midget had pummeled him repeatedly before and now joined in as traitor by helping the human without being asked, he scratched and fought with it, rolling around on the floor, though it proved to be tougher than it looked. He saw to his consternation that while he was distracted, the human had released a water pokemon, the quagsire, to watch over the ring to make sure he didn't try to get out or flame her again.

Feeling weak, he shunned the grass type named Lolo Jr. again, expecting to be knocked out by the lotad. Instead, he felt a misty spray wash over him and a squirting noise, and looked up to see the human holding a potion. He felt better as she, to his unhappiness, healed both of them. Still refusing to ember, but thinking he might be able to end it with a lucky strike, he scratched out at the lotad and tried to knock it out, then throw it over the walls of the ring. This didn't work, as quagsire squirted water threateningly the moment he got near the edges, and the human squirted the lotad again to heal them.

It was just like the withholding food 'game', he realized, stilling. His arms were getting tired from scratching, yet his flame was still going strong and his body itched to use it, he actually had to resist it from forcing itself out of his mouth as a retaliation for the attacks. He did not really want to fight on command, and yet he was already fighting...

For over five hours, the brutal game went on. He danced around the ring, avoiding as many attacks as he could, avoiding dishing them back, but still took them. He snarled and growled until he grew tired of noise and became silent, and occasionally tried to deter the other pokemon with a claw or scratch. And despite his exhaustion, he could not sleep, for the potion spray kept him up, and a secondary spray, aptly called 'awakening' prevented the act of sleep entirely. At one point, he simply laid down and gave up on moving, letting it pummel him silly. At one point, he watched the human walk out to get more supplies and grew hopeful, but that merely brought the activities to a brief pause, and on one occasion she brought food back with her and a book to enjoy. How he truly wished he could read a book...

A blow indignantly punched him in his tender nose, illiciting a small growl.

Trembling, his will began to break once more. "_Just leave me alone!" _he roared, and flames battered outward from his breath, enveloping the lotad which gave a crying peep before crumbling over to the ground as his breath continously raged on it. Its leaves curled and cindered, and it wiggled and cried furiously as it blackened, before going faint, heavily dried out like a prune. The trainer returned it, smiling.

"Excellent, good job Leos, come now." she opened up the ring, and he rushed out into the wider, open area, though there were still four walls around him he felt joy even to have that little bit extra more of freedom for the moment. Still, that treatment had not just done nothing; mouth still itching with a desire for burning, and an incredible hatred of what had just been done to him, he 'came' to the trainer, opened his mouth wide, and fired.

Sploosh. Not the noise he was expecting. The moment flame lit up and out from his mouth, water shot out from the quagsire, who to his irritation doused him in the process, getting him wet.

"_None of that now!" _the other pokemon shouted, and he was startled to realize he could understand them, perfectly, but did not have much time to dwell on this as the human's hand reached down fearlessly to pat him. "_That nonsense won't work here, not ever, so you better give it up now. It'll be pleasant to be rewarded, just you see."_

"Good boy, Leos, good good boy!" she out held a lovely smelling liver treat, which he couldn't resist taking, hungry after that ordeal. "I think you should know now, my name is Betty Black. I'll be your trainer for now. And if all goes well, I'll be yours forever, Leos." Betty smiled. "Kebin is coming tomorrow, so rest up. I'll talk to him for you and try to convince him it would be best if you stay with me!"

Charman- Leos was torn between exhaustion, grief, and relief at the idea he might not go back to Kebin at least. Emotionally wrecked and physically a child, he dug his head in to his tormentor and hugged her with his arms, begging for comfort, which he received, being petted and held in long arms as he was finally permitted to rest. Isolated from the world and from any friends, he realized wearily that he was beginning to both hate, and _**adore**_ her. His tail swished and fluttered in her grip contently as he began to go into a babyish slumber...


	5. Leos

5.

_"Da thought it was cute when little Nida fell in love with Nido. He didn't find it cute when he realized his two week old daughter was pregnant." stated their cousin __when asked about the subject. Many thought it depraved. But how can true love ever be awful?_ - Milktank's Philosophy

* * *

_"You can talk with us now because you are more in touch with your instincts._" explained Ninetails her theory. "_You are kind of odd, you know, I've never seen anyone act quite like you before... You remind me of a human."_

Leos scowled, flame flickering slightly brighter. _"I am little like a human. And I don't think my instincts should control me."_

In response to that, the many-tailed white fox laughed, then turned away to sleep. _"I have nothing more I wish to say to you, at least until it is decided whether or not you are one of us. Why don't you go and see them decide your fate? Maybe Master will pet you."_

"I do have him here, hiding here somewhere. Leos!" he heard Betty call, speaking of the devil.

Kebin had arrived to Betty's home. Leos stared from behind the sofa, very unsure of what to feel, before going. Being around Betty had become a little like an addiction, his only source of attention, comfort, warmth and food. Even his own hate for her couldn't keep him away, as he kept himself at her feet and holding himself against her leg like a tame little kitty. Leos occasionally wondered what was wrong with him that he was so weak as to obey someone he hated. The two humans discussed his life, going over the details of what to do with him, as he stared vacantly at nothing. Distantly, he realized he was depressed. He decided he wanted Kebin to take him away from Betty, yet at the same time wanted to keep away from Kebin, and desired Betty's attention in his child body's desire for a parental figure. It was an ugly truth.

"So you see, I don't think you were a very good handler for him. You lost him, after all, and you can see yourself how well I've tamed him. In addition, I'll make you a good offer; I can breed him and offer the pick of the litter of his babies. They'll be a lot easier to control for you." she smirked.

Breed? She planned to_ BREED _HIM? Leos gazed rather uncomfortably at Betty at these words.

He pondered on when and how exactly she planned to breed him, he was still a baby, and wasn't planning to get married. She couldn't possibly expect he'd just bam anyone pretty who walked by, right? Leos had standards. Yet, technically, it was true he was capable of breeding right now in this childish body- it was an uncomfortable fact many pokemon could produce early, even after they came straight out of the egg, as some sick instances in history had proven.

"That's true, Miss Black, but I still have a legal right to him and I want him, He's my starter, and the star of my future team. I am sorry about losing him." Kebin professed, rubbing a burn wound. "Thank you for your tips, though. I won't get attacked by him again, if that is what you are worrying about. I have Pidgeotto to protect me and better handling techniques." So he'd raised the pidgey he'd gotten to a pidgeotto, that's what had taken him so long to get around to coming here. Had they considered the possibility of not getting their 'prized starter' back and done that as a consequence, or was it an indicator of how serious they were taking this training thing?

"Is that so? So his well-being doesn't come into it?" her eyes glistened wide. "Even if he loves me more?" ...no comment on_ that._

"Well, I dunno... I guess we could see who he'd come to, you or me, although I think you just have him trained to obey." Kebin stated dryly. "Love doesn't come into it, I think. I don't think pokemon can love." Little snot.

"Still, it's worth trying! Okay." she schooched away from the charmander, and took the opposite side of the room from Kebin. "Now. Leos, come!"

"Leos, come here!" Kebin commanded, though he looked unexpectant of it working well. Leos gazed outwards between the two evils, sighing. To neither did he come. "I think we confused him," Kebin stated, when Betty looked angry at his refusal to obey an order. Since when was Kebin capable of offering sane and sympathetic explanations, he wondered? Maybe he'd knocked a degree of sense into him. Curious now, he walked to Kebin and sniffed his hand, which clenched nervously, causing him to smirk. Ha, the kid was still afraid of him (was that really something to be proud of? a mature part of him wondered). "It looks like I win." they stated, firmly and without a trace of the fear hidden within.

"I guess you do. Take your charmander and go." Betty glared, folding her arms. "Don't come crawling back to me when it evolves and kills you."

Kebin flinched slightly, Leos could feel it as he had his hand around him, ready to pick him up. Considering Kebin's previous love of over-using pokeballs, he got the feeling this was to show off as the other continued, lifting him up firmly and not looking back to Betty as they walked out the door. Mischievously, he slobbered on Kebin's ear, causing him to flinch again, though they stifled it while still in sight of Miss Black. Leos smirked at the other's discomfort, even while he felt discomforted that he himself was becoming more and more childish in manner to match his body. There had to be a logical explanation...

"Okay, you little $#!%." muttered Kebin as they went down the stairs, to the door, and went out of the building complex. "I've got you back now, so you better not prove so much trouble for me or I'll sell you, you hear?"

Great... There was just no winning here, he thought, as he was put down, and sucked back in to a pokeball.

* * *

"Leos, go."

Light poured into his eyes, a slight shock after all the darkness to his mind, and the image of a totally new environment. The smell was putrid, the walls dark and the floor purple- and strangely gooey. Glancing about, he found himself in a ring beside Kebin, with a crowd watching, booing. A tunnel lay up ahead.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the poison pokemon gym! Will our challenger here make his way to the gym leader? No one knows! Let the first battle begin!"

What he had first mistaken to be grass rose up from the ground, several oddishes surrounded him, but only one stepped forward to fight, opening its mouth and trying to absorb energy from him. Darting, and immediately finding it very hard to move quickly in the muck, he couldn't dodge, and hissed at the slight feebleness and pain he felt.

"Ember, Leos." Kebin commanded, and he was strangely happy to obey, opening his mouth wide and sending small balls of flame at the oddish, which quickly crumpled. Another stepped in, looking determined, but it too fell at an unasked for extra spurt of flame. Kebin gave him a sharp look, and the charmander's glare back at him said he was an idiot. What, did he just expect him to wait to get attacked or do something else less affective?

The third, he did not even wait for it to try to attack, and launched at it- and was startled to find himself recalled into his ball. A few moments later, he was released again, and Pidgeotto stood there, having done the job. "Obey my commands and only my commands or else." Kebin stated softly, quietly, yet underneath was a clear venomous threat. The trainer walked down the tunnel, treading slowly through the muck and trying not to get too dirty, and Pidgeotto followed him, flying through the air. Reluctant to be recalled again, Leos scurried after.

"Watch." Kebin commanded, as zubats fluttered down from the tunnel ceiling, opening their mouth wide and screaming. "Pidgeotto, whirlwind then gust!"

The hawk-like bird arched its wings back and then buffeted them outward, sending a whirlwind through the air that scooped up the zubats, but by itself did nothing to them. Then, it sent a gust billowing in, sending the whirling wind crashing along with the zubats against the walls.

"Now, return!" he held out his pokeball, and Leos was fascinated to see the image of Pidgeotto flicker smaller as it was sucked a half-moment later in to the light. Speaking of light, the tunnel was getting darker and darker as it went on... "Now you, ember them!"

This use of his repertoire was getting rather stale and old, but after only a small hesitation he obeyed. One by one and two by two he downed them swiftly, and it was his guess they were all very low strength pokemon. Many managed to get on and bite him, sucking blood, but he managed to shake the leeches away and ember them. One hit a tender spot on his belly and in his temporary rage he was tempted to rip it to shreds, but a sharp look and a raise of a ball from Kebin stopped him. The trainer had other options. He didn't, he thought resentfully.

They trudged through the tunnel, using his flame to light the way, and took a turn in the path. Dead end. A strange skunk pokemon he didn't recognize rose up and tried to spray stink at him, to his digust, and he fell over into the sludge trying to get out of the way. Blech! He spluttered and shook, feeling very foul and dirty, and launched himself at his new opponent.

A second bewildered moment later, he stood dazed a few feet away from where he'd been standing, then heard Kebin yelling in anger and realized he'd been taken in and then released out of his ball. "I didn't tell you anything, Leos. Now scratch!"

Eh, whatever amused him. He tried to move in quickly, but the sludge slowed him down, and the skunk laughed, mockingly dancing out of the way before spraying poisonous gunk in his eyes. "Chrraaaaman!" he hissed, shaking and rubbing, eyes, skin, nose and mouth irritated- before he bowled over and vomited, feeling sick. Great. He hated poison pokemon.

A smirking look from Kebin gave him the idea this was intended, or at least enjoyed. "Growl, Leos!"

Growl? Growl? Honestly? Puffing up, he gave a menacing roar- then sneezed all over his opponent in the middle of it. Oh yeah, he bet that worked so well.

"Smokescreen!"

Looking back, he gave a pleading look while feeling ill. Did they really have to play this 'I-can-boss-you-around-hahaha-' game? Turning his head, he opened his mouth, and released smoke and (out of habit) flame, scorching the enemy pokemon.

"Skuuu!" it cried, getting burned, and he didn't have to look back to guess his human was furious with him for his mistake.

"That was not what I meant." Yup. He guessed correctly. The fruitcake was smoldering in tone. "Finish it off with scratch, then you're done here."

Why exactly should he do that when he was just going to get punished, again? He glanced back. Ugly face. The fellow could stand some disappointment. Arching his legs back, he pounced on the skunk's back and bite down, savage instincts taking hold as he started shaking his head back and forth in a predatory manner, stopping only to cough. Ugh, what exactly had it done to him, given the flu?

He was sucked back in the ball, and Kebin turned around to take the other path.

* * *

It was painful. Every second his weakness grew stronger, eating away at him even within the confines of the ball. It seemed like many minutes slowly went by, nothing changing. Normally, he was barely aware of himself or anything while in the ball, mildly sedated. This time was different. Limbs thrashing, he yearned to try to get free, but nothing seemed to work.

"-Poison Tail."

The light came again. Was he finally, he thought wearily, back at the center?

No. He was standing in front of the triumphant looking gym leader, smirking, because he was Kebin's last pokemon, Pidgeotto laying on the ground fainted before him for a half-second before it was returned. A dark, long gold-glittering snake smirked before him, raising up to strike. He didn't think about it- he vanished from his spot, fractionally missing a spaded tail flying at his ear. The charmander coughed, alarm filling him as he saw Kebin's face, withdrawn and grim, and the gym leader, smiling. He was being left to the dogs.

Frantically, Leos tried flaming and hopping away, ducking, biting, scratching. Little worked, as he himself was bit and slashed and his moves evaded from. He was too slow, the seviper too fast, the poison too strong and Leos too weak. Violently, the tail knocked his legs out from underneath him and wrapped around, squeezing the life out of him. The fire lizard gave a scream as long pointed fangs sank into his shoulder, helpless to move. Kebin just smiled.

"Ember, Leos."

Shocked enough to try anything, he obeyed, and was relieved to find it releasing him, unwinding and shrinking back from the flame before launching itself at him again on command of the leader. He felt his body stablizing, the life from him no longer leeching away so much as he adjusted to it, and raked his claws back on the enemy creature.

"No Leos, drop away."

The charmander disobeyed- and was immediately rewarded with a horrible whack against his face with a sharp edged tail, sending him backwards anyway. His vision blackened and turned funny colors for a moment and for a second he believed he would faint, but ended up still standing.

"Smokescreen!" Was this a test to see if he'd obey? He had no clue, but there was an urgency this time and no time to play around- he had nearly no strength left. Exhaling wide, smoke plumed outwards, obscuring his enemy's face, causing them to swing wildly and hiss. Quickly, he kept back. "Ember!" Instantly, he obeyed, baking the little serpent red-hot. Could he win, he thought hopefully? It was never fun getting knocked out.

"Seviper, screech!" An unholy noise battered his ears, setting him off-balance as it snaked out to attack.

"Metal claw Leos!" It was a move he'd never used before, and was not really familiar with. Lashing out his claws, he managed to bat the head away to the side of his body so it didn't bite down on him, and was immediately rewarded with the tail wrapping around him. Ugh... it crushed against his limbs and chest, and he felt everything go dim. "Ember, Leos!" Closing his eyes, he breathed heavily, barely hearing. "I said Ember!"

The snake unwrapped from around him. He was still.

* * *

He was in a forest, his adult charmander self again, looking in his reflection at a pool. He remembered this place, it was just a little ways away from Magby's house! He was home, he thought giddily, and glanced up at the bright blue sky. Everything that had happened was just a nightmare, he must have been sleepwalking and finally woke up. Charmander laughed. Leos, huh? What a jo-

Turning around he saw a baby charmander staring at him.

"Who are you?" he asked, blinking and yet also relieved to find he didn't have to say his name in the old tongue.

"Char char. Mander. _I'mma Leuuowos._" the baby spoke. "_I thaw yu was Leeuuowos too?_"

"No... I'm Charmander. That was just a bad dream, you can't be here. You can't know my dream!" he shouted, stepping back, frantic now. "You can't be real, I must be hallucinating, or, or... this is some sort of very bad prank. Is there a drowzee here?" he glanced around, as if expecting one to step out of the bushes.

"_Yu are sleepin'!_" Leos laughed at Charmander. _"It's time to wake up._"

"Wait, but- who are you?"

"_I jus' said. I'm yuu body. I hatch'ed, I wuss there- and then suddenly I wus yu. Or you wus me, really."_

The world slipped away.

_"Maybe ness time I gets to be you? I always wanted to be all grown."_ the baby chirped._ "Goo'bye now!"_

"No!"

* * *

_"No!"_ he shouted, standing upright, and was glanced at in concern by several Chansey.

_"You're all better now._" one of them said, staring. _"Err, aren't you?"_

He glared, but then nodded his head. They hadn't done anything wrong, and didn't deserve his anger. It was just... where was he? Glancing around he didn't recognize the area. He was next to rows of cages full of other pokemon, stands, people yelling and laughing and talking, a chain around his foot and neck... Oh, and food! A whole dish. He devoured it hungrily, before asking. "_What's going on?"_

_"Oh. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you are for sale._" the chansey admitted. "_Goodbye. There is nothing more I can do for you._" she turned away and began to walk off to check up on other pokemon.

_"W-wait! Please, can't you help me escape or something?_" he spoke plaintively.

_"This is better for you. Wild pokemon don't live as long as domesticated ones." _she bobbed her massive head.

_"That's the lie they told you."_ he muttered to himself. It disturbed him to think it might be true; for one did the wild pokemon in these parts have any concept of dental hygiene or houses? His brief stint of freedom in the forest had revealed nothing much. In many of the stories they relied entirely on their masters. But regardless, now it seemed he was in a whole lot of trouble. Again.

That child he'd seen, it couldn't have been... The real owner of this body, could it? He glanced down. Was it just a nightmare, or was it something more real? Either he was an insane charmander who had never actually been an adult, with multiple personalities, or he was actually really from another world who had been hit by an abnormally slow but still lethal asteroid and woke up in what he now felt was another body. Being who he was, he was inclined to believe the latter, but, that was exactly the kind of thing an insane person would believe.

Considering the evidence, he looked himself over. If it really was another body, there should be physical differences, although his memory now of his early self's appearance was vague and most of his kind looked a lot alike. Charmander- Leos? Who was who now? had been lucky enough to never get a scar. This kid had none either, it seemed, except the marks he'd recently received in battle. Their skin tone was the same orange that was slightly redder than the average charmander, yet nothing too unusual... Same number of fingers, again, that was normal, but they were built in a slightly chubbier but familiar manner to his own, always a little bit less dexterous and bigger than he liked. His tail seemed the right length, but he couldn't remember what exactly he'd looked or been like as a very young child, he sighed.

He realized now that even if he escaped, where exactly would he go? He knew of no magical gateway or any way to another world, nor even if in this world the legends were real. In all luck, they'd not be very legendary at all and be like everything else slaves to the humans. And if he did find a way to his home, what to? His body was surely incinerated, and this body seemed to belong to this world, to (if it had not been a nightmare) another being even who was too young to care it had been taken over. It didn't sound terrible fun to become a ghost, but he was very homesick...

Charmander stopped in his thoughts, seeing the last person he expected walking toward him. Kebin. Was he going to take him back? Tell him to whom he was being sold like a dead bag of meat?

"I told you what would happen if you didn't obey me." the boy sneered. Oh, so he'd just come to taunt. That was all well then. "I hope nobody can find a taker for you and you get eaten, if not by people because you're rare in the wild, then by feral scyther or raticate that would want to eat you in the wild."

Oh, shut up already. Someone was coming by- oh colorful euphemism for foul things, it was Betty! Flattening in horror, he hoped she hadn't noticed him. Unfortunately, she had, and immediately bee-lined for Kebin.

"I've come to buy." she said.

"A pity." Kebin mumbled, which caused her to glance at him oddly. "Nothing. It's all good then. My asking price is 20,000."

"That's outrageous. Why, in your opinion, a little bad tempered thing like him, he can't be worth half that, can he? I'll be nice and bid 10,000." The slimy little cow. Just the other day she'd been claiming she should have him for how well she'd tamed him.

The male trainer paused. "12,000." Fantastic. He was worth as much as an uncommon TM, if it compared anything to home. Charmander was just so thrilled. And this guy didn't seem very good at haggling.

"Done!" she smirked, and start pulling out wads of cash.

"W-wait!" someone yelled, bursting through a crowd that bustled around a nearby shiny seaking. "I've been waiting for a charmander to enter this market for months! How much is the highest bid? 29,000? I'll match that! I'll bid 30,000!" It was a young... boy, girl, wearing a straw hat and shorts? He couldn't tell, but they were around half the height of Betty and Kebin. Betty was older and taller than Kebin, but not too much.

Betty stared, and mouthed off loudly. "Too late kid, it's already mine! And you look barely out of diapers, you can't have that kind of money."

Kebin stared. "Uh, wait a min..." he pressed Betty's money back in her hand.

The small kid glared. "I am not just out of diapers! I am very nearly almost all grown up! My mamma is very well-to-do, and I. want. my. charmander!" he stomped his foot, but to his credit didn't throw a tantrum, just looked at Kebin hopefully. "Please? I really do have the money!" he opened up his bag to show.

"Sure, Mr..." Kebin flattered, grinning wide at the thought of all that dough. He moved nearer to Leos's mat, and unhooked the chains. "He's all yours, his name is-"

"I don't care what you named him, I want to name him myself!" The kid grabbed the chain, plopped cash on the mat, and yanked 'Not-Leos-Anymore' off, though as long as he moved along with it it didn't choke him. Then, secretively, he turned in embarrassment and whispered to the charmander, "Uh, what's a good name?"

"Charm." _I don't know._

"Cool." the kid turned around. "His name is now Charm!"

"What's your name, kid? Oh, nevermind, here, you can sign the papers." Kebin held a pen and a pad of paper out. Charmander tried to peer over to read it, but his view was blocked by the unknown kid.

"Provided he can read." snarked Betty, annoyed at being foiled once again, and stomped off. A small, childish part of him felt horrified at having so badly offended an authority figure in his life- he now wondered if that came from another personality.

"I can." the kid said, dantily and with a smile, scribbling. "My name is Abraham! Can me and Charm go now?" He held his head to the side in an offensively and atrociously cute manner. Human beings should not be that adorable.

"Yeah, 'k with me." Kebin shrugged, counting the money and finding it satisfactory. He did not care he'd just sold a dangerous fire lizard he'd had trouble controlling to a younger member of his kind.

"Yaaaaayyy." Abraham gave a skip, and started walking and bouncing with his favorite new pet in tow. For his own safety, 'Charm' followed , getting inspired despite himself by the youth's sheer enthusiasm. They seemed nice, and were, he hoped, too young to think about breeding and battling.


	6. Abraham

...Never under estimate the mind of a child. - A mother.

6.

Charm lived in luxury. He had his own bed again, albeit a small one, and food that came regardless of what he did (milktank meat, blech, couldn't stand it without thinking of his old friend) and his own constant companion who seemed to delight in just looking at him snore. Abraham was called, for short, Abra, but that was far from his favorite nickname. He didn't like being compared to the sleepy little pokemon, and as far as 'Charm' was concerned, no two creatures could be more different. Abraham was a spazz, but he was also the best friend Charm had ever had in this world. He gave unconditional affection, even thinking it hilarious when his 'pet' accidentally set fire to the expensive gold drapes in the master bedroom and knocked over priceless china from a shelf in a game of rough housing (he couldn't resist a good game, not after what he'd been through). His mother, and her maids, had not been so thrilled. He'd been given an ultimatum; he would behave himself, or else.

But, besides all that, as he dreamed, he met the dream child charmander again.

"_Ouwwur name is Charm now? That's so confusing..._"

"Let's get it straight, now. I'm not you. Now, I'll call you Leos since that's what you thought your name was before, and you can call me Charm or Charmander." he stated, a little more scathingly than he needed to with a kid. They gave a hurt look. "Sorry. I'm just stressed. This is your body, right? You can have it back now. Abraham will look after you, he's not entirely bad, certainly less bad than the other humans."

"_You can't goes!_" little Leos whined. "_Pwease, I'm all alone. I donnu how to do anything and you dos._"

"I'm supposed to be dead. And I'm never getting back to my world." he sighed. _"Probably not, anyway. I accept this now. Everything has been hell for me, now that things aren't quite so bad, I should stop before I make your life worse. I'd just try to escape, and then what?"_

The baby stared at him with big eyes, not understanding. _"I'm you. I'll... I'll try to escape too if you would!"_

"No you won't." he shook his head. "You deserve a chance to be your own person. To control your own body. I give it up." he closed his eyes and laid down...

...

And opened them once more. Crap. He was still in control. Perhaps he should have thought that through. Glancing, he saw Abraham's sister for a flashing second before giving an oof as feet planted into him and a small kid hugged him tightly and squeeled. "TEA PARTY! I'm inviting you Mr. Snooky!"

"Charm." he replied, annoyed. He preferred to be called Charm, dammit. The girl ignored this and got off, only to pull up a dress. "Woah I'm not wearing that!" he stared in horror, and leaped away to go hide under the bed. Innocently naive, she grabbed him by the tail and he had to suck in every bit of strength he had not to turn around and bite her in response to the sudden pain, and to not roast the whole room and everyone in it alive when she shoved a dress on him.

This was just humiliating.

Getting out a tea set, she poured tea for him and smiled sweetly. "Would you like more tea and crumpets?"

He stared. What the heck was he supposed to say? Oh, what the heck, he'd go along with it. "Char!" he bobbed his head yes.

"Yay! I mean, er, right away Mr. Snooky!" she giggled. "Or should I say Miss Princess Snooky?"

NOOO. His tail burned with humiliation. Princess? Oh, come on, he was obviously a guy, albeit wearing drag. Although, maybe that did make one a 'princess'. He felt such shame. His manlyhood... He watched her pour a cup of water, then add sparkly stuff to it.

"Drink up!"

_"You do know that's plastic, and not edible, right?"_ he stared at the confetti infested water, before suffering a glare and nervously taking it in hand and taking a polite sip. He tried not to gag at how horrible it was.

"Let me tell you about my day, Princess Snooky. I think Prince, uh, Prince..." she glanced around. "Prince Table," Charmander snorted at this. "is gonna rescue my brother Abra, from, err, sock monsters! And he'll be so grateful he'll suggest Prince Table marry me so they can be brothers in law!"

He was sorely tempted to smack his head into the very royal table set before him. But that would spill his toxic tea.

It went on like this for only a few more minutes. Then he heard Abraham coming in from the door downstairs, back from school, and stared at the entrance to the playroom hopefully. They couldn't be too much longer, could they? He was disappointed to hear the boy come up, then grumble about homework and head off to his bedroom. Sigh.

One would think a little girl would get bored quite quickly, but it seemed like she had never had a playmate before, and soon she was making him play house. He actually started to enjoy himself a bit, despite himself, and if this was all he had to worry about these days then life wasn't so bad after all, although he still wanted to give back his body to its rightful owner. It was only just, after all.

Abraham stuck his head in.

"Abra! Please, you can be our neighbor Mr. Goody!"

Abra stared. "Charm, what in the world are you doing in that dress? Polly, what did you do to him?" he accused, narrowing his eyes like it was some heinous crime. To a little boy, it probably was.

"I'm playing! It's no fair you get your own pokemon and I don't just 'cus I'm younger, and you hog him all the time!" she shouted.

Looking for help, Abraham glanced at Charmander desperately. "Come on boy, you can't actually like this, right?"

Charm sighed, sat and shrugged.

"Ugh!" he threw up his arms. "She's corrupting your brain with girl cooties! You'll see, soon you'll like kissing or something!"

Charm laughed. He doubted he was in danger of that any time soon with this childish body and no other pokemon around except for an old Mr. Mime in the kitchen which he almost never saw. Perhaps he should write them an ode to cleaning? Still, he stood up and shook, grabbing the dress in his teeth and taking it off. He'd had enough for one day of that.

What he didn't expect was for Polly to start to scream at the top of her lungs. "YOU'RE GOING TO RUIN MYYYYYY DRESSSSSS! YOU MEANIE YOU NEVER WANTED TO PLAY WITH ME WAAAAAAAA!" After yelling and ranting about the unfairness of it all, she descended into pure bawling on the floor, and Abraham looking distressed as well started yelling too.

_Ughhh_, he clapped his claws over his ears. Spoiled child. A lonely little brat who could be kind of sweet, but a brat nonetheless. Where was their mother? Shouldn't she be in, watching them? Glancing at the clock, he realized she was still at work. Meh. Where was a maid? Finally, he heard some one come up, the butler. He was not allowed to spank or put in time out or punish the children in any manner, but he tried to calm the girl with words.

Finally, Abraham groaned and stomped out. "What ever! He's my pokemon, I bought him-"

"With mom's money!"

"And he's mine. So I have the right to take him back after you've been playing with him all day." he scowled, and waited for Charm to go out with him. Charm didn't really like being being treated as property, but hey, what could one do? He had no way to speak to them. He saw Polly looking about to cry again, and paused. Maybe there was some way to resolve all this. Stopping, he laid down in the door way. Polly looked confused.

"You wanna play with me?"

"No way, he wants to play with me." Abraham huffed. "Come on."

He rolled over and pretended to sleep, giving a fake snore.

"Hey! I want to play with you! You can't sleep!"

"I want to play with you too!" he felt someone shake him with a hand, and then heard footsteps, and another, smaller hand touching him. "Maybe he's sick!"

"Maybe you made him sick!"

"I'd never!" she sniffled. "Maybe you made him sick by giving him candy! Mom said not to and you did yesterday!"

"Did not!"

"Did too- hey!" Without warning, he shot off from between them and bolted out the door. Hehe, they'd have to cooperate to find or catch him now! Quickly, he jumped in the laundry. There was the problem of his flame, and he very carefully dimmed it and tucked his tail under his belly in a small little pocket of space. "Where'd he go? Charmander, Charmander! Where are you? Now you scared him off!"

He heard them argue some more, then finally some one got the bright idea to look at the lump in the clothes, and into his vision came the sight of the two staring at him. Quickly, he hopped out and darted down the stairs.

"I'll catch him!"

"No I'll catch him!"

It was just like a game of tag, only... they didn't realize it yet. He ducked inside a closet and waited again. The door rattled.

"I think I heard him." Polly spoke, but seemed hesitant. "But I can't get to him. If I tell you where he is, will you help me catch him and be nicer to me?"

"No!"

"Then I won't tell you where he is." He imagined her folding her arms here, and Abra debating it over internally.

"There's only one place he could be then where you can't get to! He's got to be-" Charm intook breath. "on the top of the refrigerator!" and had to stop himself from laughing and giving himself away.

Polly had no such compunctions, and laughed. "Ha! He's not there!"

"Then where is he?" Abraham sounded genuinely confused and flustered. "Up a tree?"

"No."

"In one of the cars?"

"Nope." Polly sounded gleeful now that she knew something he didn't, and was lording it over him. "Only I know! You'll never be able to guess. Now will you please help me?"

"Oh, fine."

"Yay! Okay, he's in the closet with the bad doornob. I think he accidentally locked himself in. I did that once when I was playing hide and seek with daddy..."

"Oh, that's easy to open. You just jiggle it like so..." the door swung open wide, and he stared at the two grinning siblings. They seemed much happier now, and he felt a strange sensation, like static shock in his limbs, making them move for a second against their own volition. _'Yay! What a fun game!_' a familiar voice bounced in his head, and he was startled as Abraham hugged him.

'_Leos?_' he questioned internally. '_Was that you just now_?'

'_Yep yep! I'm learning to control my body!_' No wonder it had been so weak. If Leos had never controlled his body before and didn't know how, how could he stand up against a fully adult being who knew what he was doing, even one who didn't want to be there? But this was good progress. And it showed Leos wasn't just a figment of his imagination. Probably.

'_Good job_.' he purred.

A/N: More of a comedy / stress relief chapter, slowly but surely advancing the plot. Here you go.


	7. Ghost

A/n: I'd just like to say thank-you to the reviewer who made Emily up. A personality of crazy with a fear of fire and needles was just the sort of character I needed for an extra, although I ended up using her pokemon more than herself.

Also folks, there is a slight point of view change here and a time jump, so please do not get too confused. For clarity, Leos is the animalistic younger self, Charm(ander) is the civilized one who died and was reborn. To answer, Betty Black will likely appear again later but I'm not giving anything away.

Untrue World

7.

_Ghosts dancing, ephemeral, in the light, make for easy belief in angels in the night - Xatu's Truthisms_

* * *

For as long as Leos could remember, he had a guardian watching over him. As he grew, he felt them seem to go dormant and more distant, and found it harder and harder to remember what they were like. He knew they were a charmander like him or perhaps a charizard (so much more impressive!) though, haunting his dreams and scaring away his nightmares. His guardian was strong.

He thought he felt disappointment from his guardian, when he showed little interest in the human things like television or computers, books or cars, or even such things as where his food came from. Leos was content, although he was a little confused as to why his name was Leos. The Masters always called him Charm, such nice masters they were, even though, silly humans, that was his guardian's name, not his. He slept while they went away; his guardian wouldn't let him destroy the house (even if the furniture would look better burnt!), and the strange terror that flooded through him from them was enough to make him fearful of whatever strange punishment that might result as well.

He loved going outside, but only when his Masters were around too, especially the Master Abraham, playing fetch and even tolerating summer games of squirt bottles. Abraham had been ignoring him more and more lately, absorbed in his studies, and Leos hated it. Still, sometimes he was let out in the yard alone. There he would chase rattata and try to catch and eat them, though he never managed to yet, and harassed the neighborhood dogs and cats who passed by the fence. Somehow, he got the feeling he disgusted the dream-angel whenever he did this.

He knew the dream angel was real, because of one time he had gotten into real trouble. He had been brought over to a friend's house by Polly, and they had been babysat by a woman named Emily.

Leos saw a strange pokemon he had never seen before, with funny looking leaves and a sort of four legged dinosaur like body. He thought it seemed kind of girly, and decided to say so.

_"You girl?_" He had never met a girl pokemon before, not that he remembered. They smelled sweet, like a plant Abra's mother brought in the house with funny colors. His guardian had told him those were called 'flowers'. He thought flower was a funny name for a color.

The pokemon blinked. _"No!_" it seemed insulted._ "Am Cooper, a boy grass type."_

"_Oh._" he titled his head. It was a Chikorita.

The chikorita seemed quite proud. _"Am shiny, cost a lot, and rare starter like you."_

"_Me?"_ he looked down at himself and his reddish orange skin. "_I cost a lot?_" He had been bought, like vegetables? He shrugged. Chikorita was a vegetable, and they talked, so he supposed it wasn't so bad.

"N_ot as much as Cooper. Weird colors make lot for some reason."_ Cooper stated matter-o-factly. He thought Cooper seemed about the same age as he was, and wondered if maybe they had a person in the back of their head too. "_But maybe close?_"

Neither pokemon were particularly bothered by the idea of being bought. Why should they? They knew no different, and liked their trainer/owner.

Another plant came up to him. Was this one a girl? He decided not to ask since that might insult it, but thought they smelled like a girl. This one had yellow leaves, and he thought he recognized the kind as a bellossom from television, which is why the leaves struck him as wrong.

"_Hello Yasmin_." said Cooper to the bellossom. In another room, a shriek of children playing could be heard. Leos yearned to go after Polly, but she had gotten bored of him after showing him off to her friend.

"_You sick?_" he asked Yasmin.

"_I don't believe so, dear._" said the bellossom. "_At least, I don't feel sick. Not that I would know, she never takes us to the doctor, mind, she's terribly afraid of them. _Needles_._" she whispered the last part.

He remembered getting poked once in a check up by Nurse Joy for a 'vaccination', and nodded. He hated needles too. Bellossom seemed older than him, so he simply assumed she was extremely wise. "_I'm bored_." he said, and looked to her, as if expecting her to answer his every whim.

She stared back at him and shrugged.

So much for that. He looked at Cooper, who looked bored too. _"I know, we battle_." Cooper suggested. "_I fought before_."

The thought of rough housing made his blood rise like only chasing rattata to try and eat them ever could. His tail burned and swished furiously as he stood up. He really wanted to. Was it a good idea? He'd never fou- a faint memory of a fight reached his mind. Maybe he had fought before. Then it should be easy!

With a roar, he charged at Cooper, who laughed and easily dodged. Dang, how did they get so fast with such short legs he pondered? They shot leaves of all things whipping at him, sharp and gleaming at high speed, and Leos at first didn't really believe he was even trying to avoid them. They were just leaves. But ouch, dang did they hurt as one whipped by him!

Yasmin shook her head, exasperated. Boys.

Leos scratched Cooper with his claws, but it didn't seem to be too affective, or maybe Cooper was just better at ignoring pain than he was, because they immediately retaliated by spitting a strange white gleaming ball of energy from their mouth. Leos crashed into a lamp in the other side of the room.

"What was that?" he heard a human ask.

Ignoring that, riled far too much now he launched himself again, spitting smoke at Cooper and slashing wildly. Although Cooper seemed to have more difficulty telling what was going on with smoke around his eyes, and shot off a few missed attacks, including a purple powder of some sort, they didn't really seem to be at all hurt from Leos's own attacks when they struck.

"_You try ember, if you have it?_" suggested Cooper helpfully, looking amused. _"I be better trained than you, so you'll need an attack that's super effectiv_e."

Leos paused, and tried, spitting a few tiny, puff ball bits of fire that withered up into sparks in a flash of a second, and frowned. Then, a voice spoke, a bit sleepily in his mind as if just waking up. '_You need to breath in deeply. I can help_.' Then it sounded a little confused. '_What's going on?_'

'I'm battling. It reaallllyyy important!' Leos whined in his own head, desperate.

'_Battling? That was never supposed to happen. It must be serious. Alright, here._' He felt a presence fill his limbs, a strange tingling force.

"_I guess you can't do it quite just yet then._" the chikorita sounded disappointed. "_Pity, I was hoping you'd be a challen-_"

FWOOM.

A massive plume of fire blasted from Leos's mouth, and he got a startled feeling from his inner guardian, as if even his powerful self was surprised at how well that went. It consumed almost the entire room, setting ablaze both Yasmin, who screamed in fright, and Cooper, who yelped in surprise but grinned like he thought it was awesome.

"MY ROOM!" screeched a human girl, Polly's friend, and Leos suddenly realized how bad it looked and winced, lowering his head and looking shameful. That was his only way of avoiding punishment, as he could not explain in words to them it was an accident. They would think it deliberate.

Cooper got up, badly singed after dropping and rolling but looking quite satisfied. _"Good one!_"

"My poor pokemon!" the babysitter yelled, but shivered, unwilling to enter the room as parts of it were still ablaze. "Ohgodohgodohgodfirefirefire." she put her hands over her eyes, trembling as she slowly pried a hand away from her eyes and reached down to enlarge a pokeball. "Falehn, rescue us!"

A large, feirce red and white pokemon appeared in a flash of light, and it did not look pleased. Taking one look at the situation and at the injured Yasmin and Cooper, it, or rather he, immediately launched an attack on Leos, who meeped in fright.

"_W-waits!_" Leos began, dancing out of the way, but the zangoose was too fast and launched a punch straight into his gut, bowling him over easily. He was much stronger than him. Outstretching an arm while standing on top of him, they sent a stream of water around the room, setting out fires and dissolving some of the poisonous looking goop on the floor. Then, they aimed straight at him, shooting a blast of water in every direction; it seemed impossible to dodge.

Leos fainted.

When he woke, the situation had been mysteriously taken care of, and Cooper congratulated him on his quick thinking for pretending that Cooper's fragrant smell made him sneeze fire. He didn't remember ever doing that.

It was as if another being had taken over Leos's body for him. Happily, he thought of his guardian. (definitely a charizard, he decided.) Maybe they were... the ghost of his mom or dad? The thought stilled him. He had never thought about his parents before, or wondered about them, but the idea of one sticking around as an angel to protect him appealed to him happily.

After that incident, he had not seen or felt his guardian angel in a long, long time. But he knew they had to be there, he thought happily, daydreaming. They were his secret Charm. No one else knew about them, and he bet nobody else had one either, at least not anybody he knew. But that was okay, because he'd protect the Masters if they didn't have an angel of their own. He could be their protector, even if they were growing up taller than him, particularly Master Abra. It seemed like yesterday they'd celebrated his eighth birthday, but now he was ten years old.

He didn't wonder how old he himself was. It never occurred to him, just like it never occurred to him to wonder where he came from or how he got here as a baby.

The Master was coming, he looked up, excitedly listening to their footsteps and then watching them walk in and sit down at their desk, writing. Bored, he put his head back down again. Abraham paused, and looked at him, and Leos's heart skipped a beat as they came over to him and pat him on the head. "Hey boy, you are starting to develop a bit of a bump there, aren't you? You'll be Charmeleon soon, I think."

Charmeleon? Was that like Charizard? 'Do I get wings?', he thought with eyes widened.

"In another year, I'm going to go off and be a trainer maybe." Abraham hummed thoughtfully. "It will be very difficult to convince mother to let me, however. She considers my studies to be ever so important, and I do agree on this, don't you?"

Leos had no idea, but he nodded anyway because it was what Abra wanted.

"Still, I must think that there is some usefulness in going off and seeing the world. I may be able to take you, although there could be difficulty if you evolve too soon. They often disallow beginning trainers from starting with pokemon that are considered too dangerous. I don't think I'd have that problem with you though." he smiled. "Charmeleon are aggressive and are hard to control, but I know you never would be, right?"

He guiltily thought of his battle he'd illicitly had, but shook his head as if he once again agreed with Abra in every way. It wasn't like Abraham was going to accuse him of lying when he couldn't talk to him.

Abraham had grown so much, he reflected. He talked so old and well-mannered for his age.

"Polly would throw an absolute fit." Abraham mused tiredly. "But I just can't see myself working with a pokemon with a personality I don't like. Of course, I know, I know how you are supposed to love and appreciate every one according to the children's shows." he chuckled. "But I don't think I could deal with a mean one or a lazy one too well."

Leos worriedly wondered if he was lazy and mean, and tried to think of what he had done that was useful and nice lately. Distraught, he couldn't think of anything.

"Some say there is no such thing as a mean pokemon, but I respectfully disagree. Mrs. Hanson's Granbull is a nasty creature, it bit me just for sitting nearby where it wanted to sit at the park earlier. It didn't even bark first!"

Leos thought that might have something to do with the fact he taunted the granbull every time it walked by the yard for fun. Didn't mean it wasn't mean of course, but... it had more provocation than maybe Master realized. He wished that Master had taken him to the park with him, which he never did anymore, then he would have taught the granbull a lesson for him! Then Leos could be useful and nice for the Master.

Abraham yawned. "I hate maths. Oh well, best be finishing them before it becomes much too late."

Leos didn't have to do maths, and so rolled up and went to sleep in contentment. He was going to go with master on an adventure.

x-x

A noise woke him. It was dark, with only the moon dimly shining silver through the open window. The charmander felt frightened, until he moved his illuminating tail in front of him like a candle. Then he felt much better, and was relieved nothing was there. Just the dark. He felt so silly!

Wait.

The open window? Master always closed it. Sitting up abruptly, he looked with jerking, sharp movements everywhere around and tried not to tremble. He flared his tail and looked at Abraham's sleeping form underneath all the blankets at the bed, and peeked to see a foot. All normal and secure there.

Turning around, he felt his eyes adjusting to the lighting, and wished for once that his Masters did not have such large rooms. As a pokemon that could always expect to have a light source, he did not have the best night time vision, so beyond the tiny light of his tail it seemed almost stark black at first, the silvery rays of the moon filtering through faintly.

Abruptly, something moved. Heart thudding, Leos stumbled backward and gave a cry. "Chhaaarrrrr!"

A big hulking form emerged in front of him, a man's lower body. He looked up to see a scowl. "Shush, you little worm!" The darkly dressed man had a bag stashed full of valuables. "Drowzee, get him!"

Arms seized him from behind, and he squirmed, hissing and flailing, burning his assailant with his tail flame. It dropped him, and he saw the man leaping out the window, and Abraham yawning and waking up. "What's going on..."

A strange yellow pokemon with a piggish head waved its arm, "Drooowwwze," it muttered, and Abraham's head thunked against his pillow again, sound asleep. What did it do to him? Furious, Charm launched himself and sunk his teeth into a leg. Mmm, pork flavor. It screeched and swiped at him, trying to get him off. A strange pain filled his head, and he felt his body lifted against his will and slammed against the ceiling mysteriously.

As he collapsed back on to the ground, the drowzee stood in front of him, and placed its hands on his head. An alien, foreign presence flooded his mind, urging him to sleep, and he suddenly felt very, very frightened. This was wrong, this one was not supposed to be there! It was where his angel liv...

x-x

Charm's eyes flickered open, and Drowzee looked confused.

"_Who are you?_" it uttered, sensing it was not the one it had just lulled to sleep in their own mind.

"_A nightmare._" Charm answered simply, and slammed Drowzee against the wall. "_I was not existing very nicely, thank you very much_." he snarled. "_Don't ever bother us again, pissant."_

It whimpered and slid to the floor. "_I won't. I was merely following orders._" It crawled to the window, and Charm frowned, wondering exactly what had happened again. He looked toward the human Abraham, and found him soundly snoring alright, safe and sound. Perhaps the drowzee had been trying to devour his dreams. That made sense. But how had it gotten up here? He glanced through window, and saw the drowzee climbing down by a rope.

That had to belong to a man. A thief had been in the house. Reluctantly, he glanced back. He knew it could be risky going after, a pokemon like himself could be stolen after all. But who knew what the man had stolen? Credit cards? The wallet and car keys? A priceless family heirloom? The TV and video games (which he wouldn't mind losing, as Polly watched far too much from what he remembered) ? All of the above?

Charmander shook his head, making up his mind and bouncing down, grabbing on to the rope to smooth his fall a bit before landing. It was more difficult to grip things with this body properly, as the muscles were unused to it and handling objects is a tiny bit like riding a bike. In this world, a pokemon had to usually be trained to use a rope. That told him this probably wasn't the duo's first heist.

He had to be careful, he thought, as the man unsheathed a knife and backed towards the fence, where a get-away motorcycle was propt up. With a growl, he loosed flames- and was surprised to see they weren't as powerful as the last time, when Leos had asked him for help. What was going on? Was he loosing control over this body, fading from it over time?

The man slashed at him with the knife, and ordered Drowzee to step in line and fight for him. Drowzee looked reluctant.

One day, Leos would no longer need him, anyway. That child didn't remember the ultimatum given about not wrecking the house, but Charm merely needed to stick around a little longer to keep him out of trouble, and then Abraham would take Leos on an adventure. Abraham had been growing up to be somewhat responsible, even if he neglected Leos a little more than he should. He would take care of the boy and train him to be strong. Then Leos could do whatever he wanted with his own life. No need for Charmander to stick around.

Merciless, the thief charged him. An inexperienced pokemon might think it a joke; humans didn't fight, they couldn't, right? But Charm knew better, and twisted out of the way of the knife. Even then, it slit against his skin slightly, cutting far too close for comfort. Charm grabbed the man's arm and twisted the knife out of his hands, blasting fire to distract and pain them, as their thumbs were better equipped to keeping the knife than Charm's claws were to taking it.

Charm scorched himself on the arms, but didn't mind the pain. It was only a little bit burnt. With a snarl, he knocked the now defenseless man down, and before he could fully control himself, poised his fangs over the man's neck. He froze, unable to believe what he had just almost done, and backed off.

He wouldn't turn into an animal.

The lights in the house turned on. They had heard the racket, and his snarling. The man scrambled to get away, and Charm bit him on the leg and dragged him back.

For the first time, Abraham's mother looked pleased to see him as she went outside and found the burglar being sat on by him, all her valuables still there just laying there in a bag. Relieved, but worried the security system hadn't gone off, she awarded him, or rather Leos, who started to wake just then, with a steak.

Charm felt himself drift away.

x-x

Leos, what did you do? Charm thought, baffled as he came into existence again, stirred by fear. He could feel their heart thudding, a terrified confusion, and watched a room from their eyes that he recognized as being the house. Their skin was red, far redder than before, and their arms seemed thicker and more muscled. He felt them pace back and forth in the empty room, extremely distressed.

_'They've been gone for days now! They said they'd be on vacation but I didn't think it would be this long!_' he heard Leos creening in his own mind, not yet noticing Charm's presence.

However, Charmander noticed something. A new game laying on the television, called 'Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Advanced'. Mystery Dungeon? Those things were from his world, he thought excitedly! Maybe someone else had traveled to this world. Maybe they knew how to get back, he had to go look at that game.

He tried to take control of the body (he'd apologize to Leos later) but found he couldn't, not quite. It seemed to jerk in two directions, recieving contradicting signals. He felt Leos become confused. 'Angel?'

'I'm here. Calm down.' When did the kid start calling him angel? That was new.

_'Okay daddy. What should I do? I'm all alone!'_

Charm felt embarrassed to crush his delusions, but... 'I'm not your daddy.'

_"My mommy?"_ Leos said aloud. It must have seemed very strange, if anyone had been around to hear him talking to himself.

'No.' Amusement filtered through. He definitely wasn't his mommy. 'Think of me as... an older brother. Leos, I'm going to teach you to do a fun human thing, okay? See that TV? Do you remember the humans spending a lot of time with it? You can play games.'

_'Games?_' Leos seemed very puzzled about this. _'It just shows boring pictures and makes noises.'_

'Let me show you, kid.' he soothed the younger one's panic, and managed to wrest control, walking over to the case, opening it and, careful not to scratch it, placed it inside the gaming device. He hooked the gaming device to the tv, turned it on, switched it from cable to displaying the game's bright and cheery image, and sat back with the controller on the couch.

Immediately, he heard a protest. '_We aren't supposed to sit on the sofa or be on the furniture!'_

'It's okay. I know what I'm doing.' assured Charm, who actually didn't know what he was doing. He hadn't played this game before. But it couldn't hurt to chill back.

In a few minutes, Leos was extremely enjoying himself. They were kicking back, playing as a Cubone after taking a personality quiz, fighting pretend pokemon with a charmander partner (of course). The game was a bit weird, because Cubone was supposed to be a human turned into a pokemon. The storyline reminded him of his own history, a bit, but they hadn't gotten very far.

It was pretty weird to play a game with someone sharing the same body as yourself. Eventually, Charm noticed Leos was getting hungry.

'You want to take a break?' he asked.

_'I'm having too much fun to pry away. I never realized I could do this.'_ Leos thought, bouncing up and down in his seat and almost setting fire to the upholstery, but Charm stilled his tail just in time.

'Suit yourself then. In a few more minutes, perhaps. You can go down to the kitchens to eat.'

"_Wait, eat?_" Leos dropped the controller. "_Why didn't you say so, let's go!_" The rambunctious youth scurried, letting Charm guide his way gently, though the youth's own movements were anything but gentle in his hyper excitement. They saw Mr. Mime sweeping, and sat. "_Hey there! Anything cooking?_"

"_No, the Masters are away, so I decided to clean._" stated Mr. Mime. Personally, Charm thought that was a retarded name for a pokemon, but decided not to mention it even to Leos. He'd gotten good at hiding his thoughts from him. "_There should be dried food in your bowl_."

Pokechow? _Blech_. Leos devoured it without a thought however, and even thought it tasted good. Kid had no style.

"_Thanks! Say, Mr. Mime, you want to play a game?_"

_"No._" stated the Mr. Mime coldly. _"I would not. I have work to do that is more important than chasing your tail and making the house dirtier._"

Leos frowned, loneliness filling him, and drooped his head. _"Ah, okay then..._" At least he had Charm, right?

It made Charm guilty for thinking about going away again. This game had pulled up next to no clues, it was just a childish children's game about a human with amnesia. Charm remembered very well where he was from, and certainly hadn't been turned into a human. It seemed hopeless.

As Leos beat up his first virtual legendary, he paused. "_Hey, um, Charm...? Why don't we do this all the time? You showing me stuff, playing with me. Taking care of me._" A thought of food flashed in their mind.

'You don't have to speak out loud, you know.' Charmander thought to him. 'But... I guess there is no real reason. I just wanted to let you live your life without me interferring too much.'

Leos felt pained. _"But I want you around!_" he whispered. Not what me meant, he thought in annoyance, inside voice. Leos picked that thought up and felt embarrassed. _'Sorry'._

'It's nothing. If you really want, I guess I can be with you.'

"_YAY!_" Leos bounced around, tail flailing.

He glanced at the game, where a defeated legendary screamed "noooo!" dramatically.

'It's no problem at all.'

x-x

That night, he showed Leos how to cook food, much to Mr. Mime's amusement, who couldn't believe such a thing. They made a bit of a mess, but it was all cleaned up afterwards. He taught him how to boil pasta and meatballs, and how to make sandwiches. He wasn't sure how much nonmeat was safe for him to eat in this world, as he seemed very carnivorous, but neither of them felt ill afterward, so he decided it was a success.

Leos's primitive mind struggled to take in the concepts Charm told him, of TVs, of stoves, or written words, and in the end, couldn't take it. He could do the basic tasks like turning on the stove for seven minutes and stirring food, or hitting the A button on the control when characters were speaking in the game, but he didn't understand the tasks at all, despite being a few years old now and not a baby charmander anymore. He was even developing into a charmeleon, which was surprising to Charm. Apparently, evolution wasn't as dramatic in this world as it was in his, where it usually happened in a flash of light. He wasn't sure what would happen when Leos turned fully into one, as Charm had never evolved himself.

Leos was very tame and submissive, and Charm's fears of taking over his life flared up again as Leos seemed to simply cave in to any orders. Still, Leos insisted, having him around was what he wanted. He trusted Charm not to hurt him or tell him to do something bad.

So it was with trepidation he led Leos outside, showing him how to manipulate the door handle, and went for an unscheduled walk without Mr. Mime's knowledge (the pokemon had apparently been assigned to take care of them and feed them while the owners were out). The yard was massive, but there were few things to do in it. He couldn't exactly go diving in the family pool, and Leos had zero interest in the newspaper.

He felt unsure as he hovered at the fence. Was the collar around his neck enough to ensure no humans would bother him if he went out?

'_What are we waiting for? Are you having trouble figuring out what to do? If we can, I think we should go to the zoo! I heard it's really nice this time of year.'_ Leos thought. '_Unless... we can't leave?_' Leos looked up to him, as much as if he was a human trainer. He would obey without questioning why.

'No, we can leave.' he assured, and manipulated the locks. The gate swung open, and he closed it behind them with a smile. Immediately, he felt himself jerked over to smell the pavement, and the flowers, and all the little interesting smells that Leos seemed to find absolutely enticing. Charm took a backseat, letting Leos wander about while keeping track of where they were.

Around the corner, he saw a certain infamous grumpy granbull being walked by Ms. Hanson, and quietly warned Leos. Immediately, he felt an aggressive rush fill Leos. _'I want to smash that dog, that's the one who bit Master Abra!'_

'No, you can't!' Charm warned. 'You'd get him and us in trouble.'

Leos relented, and turned. The purple hound spotted them, and immediately they heard barking.

"Oh my goodness!" Miss Hanson gasped. "That boy's pet, Charm is loose! The one that is always heckling my poor dear Snubb, hissing at you." she patted her pet, who was pulling madly. "Get away now, shoo!"

Charm would have rolled his eyes, except Leos was using them to navigate. They went down a few streets, turned and arrived at Mulberry Lane. Traffic honked at them. A skitty fled in fear.

And there was the sign leading to the zoo, he noticed. Waiting until he reached the corner (he was polite enough not to jaywalk, although he didn't think it made a difference to anyone's opinion of him!) he crossed the street and went to go see the animals.

As he walked through the tollboth, the lady giving out tickets paused and rubbed her eyes. "Uh..."

He offered her a twenty dollar.

"Go right through?" she sounded confused, taking the money. She turned her head and Charmander passed right through. "Harv, what's our policy on pets?" he heard her ask.

"Not allowed, why?"

"Err... no reason." The woman watched Charm waltz straight through and look at the tryanitar exhibit, then the goldeen pond.

He tried to pay for a shake and popcorn, but the seller refused to stop hiding behind their stand. Leos wanted a plushie of a mew, which Charm thought was rather adorable, and a t-shirt. He ended up leaving a ten. He was running out of money fast, but didn't mind.

People stared at him as he walked by, holding a mew plushie and wearing a t-shirt. A little girl started following him around, and her mother, too busy smoking, didn't care. He set her back on the jungle gym and Leos played there for a bit with a children. He heard a concerned parent talking on the phone, and decided it was time to leave to see the Seel and Dewgong water show. There was a Walrien too there.

People gave him space at the stands, but some nerdy guy in a charmander costume decided he must be a cosplayer, sitting down next to him and chatting aimlessly. "What an excellent costume you have sir, how do you do it?"

He smirked, and looked around for something to write on, making a scribbling motion.

"Oh, paper and a pen? To show the design? Here."

His handwriting skills were atrocious, but something of his drawing skills remained despite his shaky lines and he drew up a rather inventive design about a scaly suit with a special hook up to make a safe, contained flame on the end of a fake propped up tail. He felt confusion from Leos, who didn't understand what he was doing, and it was with great amusement he gave it to the guy.

The man titled his glasses, and smiled. "How ingenious! Thanks a lot. Say, how about a pokemon battle after the show? Someone like you must be a pokemon fanatic!"

He felt embarrassed, and made a gesture like holding out bare pockets.

"You don't have any? Oh, too bad. Well, if you ever want to talk to me, here's my phone number."

He nodded his head, and noticed just then officials walking by, talking to people and looking for a wild charmander. They paused to look at him, glanced at the man in the costume, and decided to go on their way. It was embarrassing how everyone was buying this, but perhaps he shouldn't have underestimated how far people would bend over backwards to ignore weird and bizarre conclusions. There was no way a pokemon could have used money and gotten himself in to watch his fellow pokemon in cages! _That was just demented!_

Chuckling to himself, he left, stopping at the mankey cages to observe them talking about how bored they were and how funny that kid in with the round nose on the left looked picking his nose. The mankeys paused in surprise to see him. _"Hey wait a second, how'd you get out there!_?"

"_Not telling_." he stuck his tongue out, childishly, or maybe that was Leos doing that. Yes, he was pretty sure it was. Little ruffian.

Going home, he felt pretty satisfied at the harmless mischief he'd had. He felt bad about the pokemon in cages, but, there wasn't much he could do about it. Many seemed pretty satisfied to be there, and they were probably, he consoled himself, leading a better life than they would if they were out in the wild.

It was that thought that allowed him to rest as Leos headed home. It was a gilded cage, but a cage nonetheless in his viewpoint that they were returning to. He sighed. At least Leos was having a fantastic time. The boy played more video games before eating dinner and going to bed.

x-x

The owners came home. Leos looked up, bigger and no longer as excited to see them as he once would have been. There was a lazy confidence and even anger there that had not been there before. How dare they leave him behind, Leos thought irritably, standing up. They had barely even said goodbye or given any details, though he'd overheard something about the beach in Heonn.

Abraham laughed at something Polly said as he came in, then stopped in his tracks as he spotted Leos.

"Charm," he stared. "You've grown."

Well, duh. They were gone for three weeks! It was all he could do to keep from snarling aloud, and even then, a slight growl made its way from a curled lip as he turned his head.

"I mean, look at you. You're Charmeleon now!"

That gave him pause for a moment. The change had happened so gradually, he hadn't even realized, didn't know it had completed. He glanced down at his red, long limbs, and felt the new knob horn on his head. He liked the changes, he decided with a snort.

"Hey, someone finished the Mystery Dungeon game while we were gone on the pokePlay!" complained Polly. "I hadn't even gotten past the first level."

Abraham got a queer look. "Maybe one of our butlers came in for a cleaning and got bored? Or Mr. Mime did it. I hear psychics are pretty smart."

"Mr. Mime wouldn't know a game if it hit him on the butt!" Polly looked about, snarky. "I think someone was playing with my toys, too. Charm, was that you?"

Leos looked guilty. He may have drooled on one or two of them... Then he snorted. A little drool wouldn't hurt anything. She could get over herself.

"Hey, there's a strange mew doll here I don't recognize..." Polly grabbed it, then went upstairs to see if her room was messed up any. She would likely throw a screaming fit if it was, but thankfully Leos had enough intelligence to leave that place alone without being told.

Abraham sighed. "I wish you could have waited a few more months to evolve. Now I don't know if I can manage to take you on my journey or not. I know if I get a badge I'll be able to for certain, but... that would be hard. I'd need an actual pokemon for that."

Leos stirred, and felt annoyed. It was not like he could control it, honestly. He just changed as he grew bigger and stronger, as he aged. He couldn't expect him to be a sweet and docile baby who snapped up to be a handsome full adult on command, now could he? Not wanting to listen to Abraham anymore, he stalked out of the room.

"See what I mean?" Abra laughed at him. He hated being laughed at.

He wanted something to fight to take him off his bad mood. Maybe Charm would know something? Bah, Charm was a ghost. He didn't need a protector anymore, although... he liked having Charm around, he privately admitted.

'I'm glad to hear that.' a voice floated into his head.

_'Cut that out_.' Leos snarled. '_Give me some privacy, you eavesdropper no name little punk_.'

'As you wish Leo.' He felt the other recede.

A part of him wished he hadn't snapped at him, so he could ask a question. Meh. He could ask himself a question, he snorted. Where could he find a dang battle around here? Or some food?

Hmm... how about the kitchen?

Yeah. He didn't need anyone! He could take care of himself. He was so much more powerful now. The idea of one piddly little badge impressing him made him laugh.


End file.
